2017 Top of the Park Kids Guide

Our 2017 Top of the Park Kids Guide has information on all of the great family-friendly activities happening as part of the 2017 Ann Arbor Summer Festival. The Ann Arbor Summer Festival runs from June 6 through July 4.

2017 Top of the Park Kids Guide

Top of the Park is the free outdoor component of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. This Top of the Park Kids Guide lists all of the great family friendly activities happening at Top of the Park. Top of the Park starts on Friday, June 9 and runs through Sunday, July 2. It is held every night except for Mondays.

Where is Top of the Park

Top of the Park is held on Ingalls Mall on the University of Michigan campus. The large stage and movies are shown in front of the Rackham Graduate School Building on Washington Street. Washington Street is closed between Fletcher and Thayer for the duration of the festival. There are some chairs available in front of the stage/screen, but most guests bring blankets or their own chairs and sit in the grass on Ingalls Mall. There is also a smaller Grove Stage nestled in the trees on the west side of the Ingalls Mall.

2017 Top of the Park KidZone Tents

Each night of Top of the Park, a local organization hosts activities in the KidZone Tent. The KidZone tent is open from 5-8p. The KidZone tent is located on the Ingalls Mall at the north end of the Michigan League. It is to the right as you face the Rackham stage. It is marked as H on this map.

2017 Top of the Park Retreat

Each night Top of the Park, kicks off with a wellness/fitness activity like yoga, martial arts, and more. While Retreat is not a kid-centric program, they are welcome to join in. Retreat activities happen on the Power Center Lawn.

2017 Top of the Park Performances

The big draw of Top of the Park is the nightly musical performances. There are two stages setup at Top of the Park. The larger stage is in front of Rackham and is the main stage for Top of the Park. The O&W Acoustic Stage is setup in the Grove near the Bell Tower. Music typically starts at 5p on the Acoustic Stage and at 7p on the Rackham Stage. The full performance schedule is included in each of the event listings below.

2017 Top of the Park Movies

As my daughter has gotten older, we love attending the Top of the Park movies. The movies are held Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday. The full movie schedule is listed below, although not all movies are appropriate for all ages.

2017 Top of the Park Food

We make Culinary Row a part of many of our visits to Top the Park. Culinary row offers food booths and food trucks offering everything from drinks to dinner to dessert. Our favorite food vendor is Slow’s To Go. We have stopped for dinner on opening night in both 2016 and 2017 before my daughter went to camp for the weekend.

The Culinary Row vendors help to support Top of the Park. Attendees are encouraged to support the vendors instead of bringing their own food.

What to Bring to Top of the Park

You don’t need to bring anything to Top of the Park. However, we like to bring a blanket to sit on. You can also bring chairs to sit in. When my daughter was younger, we would bring our wagon to hold our blanket, water bottles, and so my daughter didn’t need to walk.

If you visit in early evening, you may want sun screen. If you plan to stay into the evening for the movie, you may want to bring a sweatshirt and/or long pants. We have never had an issue with mosquitos at Top of the Park, but we are always prepared when we come for movie night. We bring mosquito spray and repellent lanterns.

Many of the Top of the Park culinary row vendors have mobile credit card machines which makes purchasing food and snacks easy. Of course cash is always acceptable. It’s also handy to have cash on hand if you want to make a donation. The Ann Arbor Summer Festival asks for a $5 donation to help keep Top of the Park free.

Getting to Top of the Park

We usually drive to Top of the Park since we don’t live near downtown. My husband works at UM and has a blue parking pass. We will often use that to park in the Fletcher Parking Structure. Without the pass, there is a $5 parking fee. The Thayer lot also has a $5 parking fee for non-pass holders. Many other UM Blue lots offer free parking after 5 or 6p. We have also parked at the Ann Structure which offers metered visitor parking and is a blue lot. It is a little further, but can be worth saving the $5 in parking. UM Parking maps can be found on their parking and transportation website.

Biking, walking and the bus are also great options for getting to Top of the Park.

2017 Mainstage Program

In addition to the free Top of the Park activities, the Ann Summer Festival includes the Mainstage performances. For the first time in several years, this year’s Mainstage program includes family-centric programming. Doktor Kaboom! will be bringing crazy fun science to the Power Center in two shows – It’s Just Rocket Science and Live Wire. Be sure to check our article on the show for more information.

Top of the Park is part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and only ran through July 2nd. You can find all upcoming activities on our Events Calendar. We send out a weekend roundup to our newsletter subscribers on Thursdays and publish it to the website 12 hours later. Your best bets for finding information are subscribing to our newsletter or following us on Facebook.